Disabled account for over 20% of 2010s Japan disaster-linked deaths

People with disabilities accounted for more than 20% of deaths caused by physical and mental strain following major earthquakes in the 2010s in Japan, a recent Kyodo News study showed.

The survey of local governments showed 21% of deaths linked to the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster in northeastern Japan involved people with disability certificates, while the comparable figure from the 2016 quakes in Kumamoto Prefecture, stood at 28%.

The figures are particularly high when compared with the proportion of disabled people in the population, which the central government estimates at 9%.